Upgrade question:)

amanikshot

Baseband Member
Messages
96
Hey guys,
I ain't a newb at pcs but was just wondering when I'm upgrading/ adding a new hd do I need to be careful/mindful of anything when doing so?
 
i can't think of anything. if you know what specs to go for, then i don't think there is anything special you should worry about.
 
Hard drives are thankfully pretty generic. Find one that has the space you need and a price you can afford, and seems to have good reviews online, then go for it.
 
just make sure you know what spec's youre looking for? SATA or IDE? i guess thats the most important part.
but everything else is mostly not too important in compatibility and whatnot.
as long as you know what you're looking for you should be okay. you should be doing that with all your pc parts anyways :p
 
Get the fastest spindle speed possible (7,200RPM or 10,000RPM not 5,400RPM) and the biggest cache buffer you can get (you want 32MB or 64MB) and if your motherboard supports it then try to get a hard drive running on SATA III 6GB/s, otherwise any SATA II HDD will do. Happily most modern day hard drives have pretty much everything I listed here so just the one with the most space for you.
 
Get the fastest spindle speed possible (7,200RPM or 10,000RPM not 5,400RPM) and the biggest cache buffer you can get (you want 32MB or 64MB) and if your motherboard supports it then try to get a hard drive running on SATA III 6GB/s, otherwise any SATA II HDD will do. Happily most modern day hard drives have pretty much everything I listed here so just the one with the most space for you.

Fastest spindle speed won't matter. Current Gen 7200 RPM hard drives are faster than the old 10,000 RPM Raptors.

Cache has no effect on performance between 32MB or 64MB. Save the money and get a 32MB version.

Motherboard SATA connections don't matter on platter based hard drives. 7200 RPM, even 10,000 RPM hard drives can't saturate even the SATA II bus (3.0 Gb/sec) Ditto for hard drives. There's no reason to buy SATA 3 only, when SATA 2 drives are fine. SSDs are where this matters.
 
I wouldn't recommend buying a hard drive now... has anybody else seen how much they have inflated because of floods in Malaysia or wherever they're produced?
 
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